‘CAR CZAR’

02.19.13

Steven Rattner Rebounds

Ramin Talaie / Bloomberg via Getty Images

Persona non grata turned persona we like you again. Two years after financier Steven Rattner’s infamous fall from grace, Andrew Ross Sorkin says the man Wall Street loved to hate is back in its good graces. A former journalist turned economist, Rattner rose to the top tiers of Washington’s elite in 2009 when he was appointed by the White House to head the restructuring of the auto industry. But excitement over his new role quickly dissipated when accusations surfaced that he had employed “pay to play” practices while at a New York state pension fund. Banned from making appearances before public pension funds for five years and shunned by nearly the entire Manhattan community, he has miraculously restored his once-flawless reputation. Sorkin says the change of heart is rare in a city where “powerful figures are dropped at the whiff of trouble.”